The death penalty needs to be abolished entirely within the United States. The living and psychological conditions of prisoners on death row can be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Inmates are isolated in their cells for 23 hours a day, often waiting years just for their execution date to come.  What makes this even worse is that there have been many instances of wrongly convicted people getting put on death row. An innocent man named Michael Blair had to serve 14 years on death row awaiting execution for a murder he didn’t commit. After all that time, DNA testing finally proved his innocence and set him free, but the psychological damage had already been done. Most people given the death sentence spend over 10 years on death row. 

The death penalty evolved from America's traditional ways of lynching and slavery, punishments enacted against people of color. The use of capital punishment reflects this racial targeting. A study done by the Death Penalty Information Center has shown that jurors are 3 times more likely to recommend the death sentence for black criminals over white ones. This can be explained by the fact that in states where the death penalty is still legal, roughly 95% of prosecutors are white. The states that have taken steps to abolish this punishment are on the right track to protecting innocent lives and eradicating inequality, however, 24 states still allow executions. Killing murderers is vengeance, not justice. 

This issue is of utmost importance due to the cruelty of death row and the lives it takes and therefore should not be allowed to continue any further.